Deploying a broadband video conferencing application, such as a service known as “Telepresence” (available from Cisco, San Jose, Calif.), may require an assessment of the data network to determine whether it can handle the high bandwidth and real-time needs of the endpoints. Simulated media IP traffic can be generated and analyzed at each endpoint to determine whether network properties such as packet loss and jitter are within tolerated thresholds. If it is determined that the network is not suitable for video conferencing (or other desired) application, further problem isolation may need to be performed to determine which of many possible intermediate devices, such as routers, may be at fault. Effective and accurate systems and methods are therefore desirable to determine the root cause of such faults.